GAUVIN: Conservatives alive and well here, send 'no-overrides' note to council

Thursday

Nov 25, 2010 at 2:00 AMNov 25, 2010 at 11:00 PM

A post-election, tongue-in-cheek image emerges: Residents of the Town of Barnstable prefer cheaper booze to clean water. Some say it isn’t a surprise.

Paul Gauvin

A post-election, tongue-in-cheek image emerges: Residents of the Town of Barnstable prefer cheaper booze to clean water. Some say it isn’t a surprise. Why else would they have voted to rescind the 6.5 percent sales tax on liquor and with the same pen in the voting booth soundly and roundly reject the mere pittance of a $750,000 annual sewer stabilization fund to protect the water they drink? Evidently the idea is to render the water toxic by neglect. From then on we have a permanent excuse for having red wine with our steaks, white wine with cod and cognac après dessert. We may even learn how to speak French, oui? And if we’re just plain thirsty, we can nip on a ‘Narry or swill a Schlitz. Who needs potable water when there is so much of the devil’s libation around that is 6.5 percent cheaper? But seriously folks, we’ve had about three weeks to digest the town’s character by virtue of its Nov. 2 vote. It’s like looking into a mirror after a bad night and being frightened by the reflection. It’s a GOP fort hoarding its gold! Consider: If the election had been determined only by this town in this state, Charlie Baker would be taking over the governor’s office in January. He defeated Gov. Deval Patrick, 10,380 to 7,982, here and one has to wonder why. He’s a conservative turn-around businessman who vowed he’d savage the fat and gristle out of state government, reduce taxes and create jobs. Huh? Reducing the cost of government would require elimination of jobs, not creating them. And when he had the opportunity to advocate for reducing the sales tax back to 3 percent from 6.5 percent and shrink government with the help of the voter, he balked. Don’t kid yourself. He didn’t have the answers either. Town voters would also have elected state Rep. Jeff Perry to Congress on the coattails of Sen. Scott Brown and the two of them, according to their foggy conservative rhetoric, claimed they would unravel health care reform, financial reform …and return us to the simple conservative joys of the 19th century Appalachian lifestyle, an event that would certainly get the blessing of the Old King’s Highway Historical Committee that keeps 6A submerged in formaldehyde. “Hey maw, thar’s a fly in ma soup.” “Thas awright, son, hit won’t eat much.” Then voters here would have elected Town Councilor James Crocker to the state Senate, what one independent wag saw as an electorate conspiracy to dump him from the town council. Others viewed it as choosing a good ol’ boy favorite son over a high-flying Harwich carpetbagger named Dan Wolf whose noisy planes wake up half the surrounding airport neighborhood of a morning. The fact is, Crocker’s unimpressive victory here, 7,631 to 6,874 stemmed from the fact that, like the others who won here, he is a member in good standing of the GOP. He was, like Perry, hoping to ride the wave of misplaced national angst on Brown’s now-dented and vulnerable surfboard rather than rely on his own virtues. But even at that, the vote was relatively close in town – only a 747 numeric difference out of a 20,203 turnout - some votes probably prompted by Wolf’s comparatively free-spending advertising campaign. Crocker’s local victory was anemic except for his own precinct – and his own elite constituency – in Osterville, the only village to give him a better than 2-1 margin. As noted in a previous column, Crocker’s perceived arrogance on the council and his so-called ideological nay votes on Hyannis and Centerville sewering and shellfish/dock issues, along with those of his like-minded ideologue, Councilor James Munafo, were fatal locally, something that could have been avoided. As a favorite son, Crocker fell short in precincts 8, 9, and 13, all awaiting or in the process of being sewered. Voters here also elected the queen of e-mail as state auditor, Republican Karen Polito, whose copious electronic messages fell just short of letting you know daily when she was brushing her teeth, locking her front door and saying night-night. Overexposure obviously is not a sure-fire election tool as regards the statewide vote. The town council is perhaps exasperated but certainly not surprised that the sewer and road stabilization fund measures were not simply defeated, but viciously smashed, trounced and pummeled by roughly 3 to 1. The sewer fund was rejected 13,862 to 5,235 and the roads fund 15,612 to 3,469. If there ever was a mandate to lay off overrides, this was it, risky water and potholes a-plenty notwithstanding.